Cheery's country living adventure 11 March 2018 at 7:28AM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Mortgage-Free Wannabe 2.4K replies 178.5K views

Throwaway1

Cheery_Daff wrote: »

Main decisions seem to be (and I WILL shut up at some point, I promise )

Do we want to stay with our current provider?
Yes
* can do online
* barely any paperwork or speaking to anyone
* already have mortgage with them so no uncertainty around assessment of income/valuation etc
* perfectly happy with service (although I do wish they would let you manage it online!)

No
* rates a bit more expensive than elsewhere (1.8% for the 2 year fix compared to 1.39%; 2.06% for 5 year fix compared to 1.75%)

Do we want to move to a different provider?
Yes
* rates cheaper (although of course no guarantee that we'd actually get them!)

No
* aaarrggghhhh, not sure I can face the fiasco of providing proof of everything
* aaargggghhhh, not sure I can face the uncertainty of a valuation again (and also our building work is not finished yet it's not anything prohibited of course, but it doesn't look very good right now!)
* we'd probably want to go through a broker but how to find a reliable one after being badly burned last time?

How long do we want to fix for?
2 years
* cheapest rates, especially if we switch (but see above)
* BUT - 2 year fix deal might actually be a 5 year fix/discount deal depending on early repayment charges - need to find these out (but couldn't see a way of doing that through the website)

5 years
* slightly more expensive - need to work out how much
* certainty for the next 5 years (by which time we'll have paid off much more, I'll be earning more, and things won't feel as tight as they do now)
* no faffing around going through this process again for 5 years (which I confess is appealing!)
* BUT - I suppose there's a (very small) chance we might want to move in the next 5 years (although obviously I'm never moving house again after last time :rotfl: ) - a longer fix will mean possibly paying more to get out of it I suppose, but I think we can deal with that if it happens. Apparently it's usually eg 1%, which would at this point be £2000, so that's something we could absorb into house moving costs in the unlikely event that we DID want to move in the next 3 or 4 years.

Right this is all REALLY helpful. Very much leaning towards 5 year fix with current people. Need to go away and do some calculations to make sure it's not going to cost us massively. Need to talk to Mr Cheery too, although rather suspect he'll be happy with whatever I'm happy with after all this calculating :rotfl:

Check if your mortgage provider allows 'porting' if you think you may move. That means that if you do move house they'll just move your mortgage with you so no early repayment charges.

Karmacat

Wow. You might move, Cheery? I thought you were there for life, to be honest. Is the travel not so great? Your neighbours sound lovely.

Cheery_Daff

Thanks Throwaway. We are really NOT considering moving (we only just got here last year and it was a huge fiasco!) so it's something I wouldn't want to make a decision on the basis of anyway.

Had a chat with Mr Cheery, who has emphasized that my sanity is important:o :rotfl: and reminded me that for his previous mortgage (which I wasn't on as I didn't know him for most of it) he stayed with the same provider for the whole 25 years as he couldn't be bothered switching :eek:

We've also decided that while my wages will increased a little year on year (and if I do get the promotion I"m going for this year there will be a bit of a jump), we're unlikely to be in a place in 2 years time where an increased of £400 a month (onto SVR) wouldn't be significant.

So in that sense it makes sense to go for a 5 year fix.

And given the months of stress and the fact that I'm having slight palpitations even thinking about trying to get a different mortgage after the nightmare of last time we have decided that it makes sense to stay with current provider.

I will run the numbers when the MSE calculator is up and running, but I think it DOES make sense to pay an upfront fee for a reduced rate, so we'll likely use the MB money for that, which will mean we'll be on 2.06% for 5 years (instead of our current 1.8%)

Then once it's settled we can crack on with overpaying as much as possible before the fix is up :j :j

Cheery_Daff

Eek, no we are NOT considering moving, eek!!! :eek: :eek: :eek: I don't ever want to move again!!

But I was just being realistic in that we never know what will happen in the next 5 years. I might lose my job (hope not!!) and we would have to downsize. Or if one of us couldn't drive for whatever reason living here would become quite difficult, if not impossible.

But let's hope neither of things will happen :eek:

Karmacat

Gotcha - thanks for that, yes, its always best to look at the worst case scenario. I love the conclusion you and Mr Cheery reached in your previous post - you were right about Mr Cheery's priorities, which are lovely

Pooky

Sometimes the sanity factor is the most important. When we took out our current mortgage we had a "non standard" income stream and whilst we could have got a cheaper rate with a fix we went for a life time tracker and have hammered it as much as we can. We're just about to move again and the mortgage provider has let us keep the same terms (even though it wasn't portable) and we are reducing it by £70k but this time have a tiny "standard" income. One 20 minute chat in branch, a few signatures and we were done. As sanity saving goes, it was more hassle finding somewhere to park for the appointment then the process itself .

greenbee

I did the maths a couple of months ago Cheery, and worked out that it was worth paying the fee for the 5 year fix (can't remember exactly how much it saved, but it was worth it in terms of total payments over the period of the fix). I could have saved a little by changing banks, but not enough to compensate for the hassle...

Cheery_Daff

Thank you all :j

The MSE calculator is back up and running again now, and it seems I can save around £800 over the 5 year fix by paying £1600 up front :eek:

Need to do the calculations to figure out if it would be better if we just overpaid that £1600 (in fact I suppose we could overpay it now, before the interest goes up)

Confess I'm slightly bored of all these calculations now though :rotfl: but there is no rush, and I will soldier on.

All go today! Saw a walker looking lost on the footpath this morning (honestly, I do strim it and have even painted little yellow arrows on the walls!) so went out and it turned out I'd met her before walking her dog before somewhere else. We had a chat, and swapped numbers, and she's offered to chicken sit if we need her to Most jolly

Then a nice bloke turned up to change my tyres - I'm a convert to having my tyres changed outside my house, especially now I don't live anywhere near the garage :j It wasn't any more expensive either, in fact I'm pretty sure it was cheaper :money: HOWEVER they really shouldn't have worn down, as I'd only had them put on this year :eek: So now that stupid car has to go back to the garage again.

Honestly, they take it in bloody turns those cars!

Work is vexing me today. I have a large significant deadline at 4.30pm today which I CANNOT miss, and which I also cannot meet unless someone else provides their signature. They've had all week to do this - and this morning they have chosen to quibble about something. :wall:

I literally can't do anything about it (it's in someone else's hands now), but I'm having to accept that today is not going to be a day for productively getting on with other things Today is going to be a day for chewing fingernails down to the bone, gaining a few grey hairs, eating far more than is good for me, composing witty insulting emails in my head, and looking for a new job :eek:

Over-reacting? Moi? :rotfl:

greenbee

I regularly look for new jobs when I find the idiot quota gets too high

I had a load of deadlines today, all dependent on other people. Not all have been met, and I'm off for a couple of days - very well advertised, but people seem to have forgotten and are asking me for stuff for end of the week. So I've mowed the lawn.

Cheery_Daff

A sensible course of action greenbee!

I received my signature with 15 mins to spare, and met my deadline with 10 mins to spare. NOT acceptable when this is an externally set deadline that has knock on effects both for the organisation and for my career if we didn"t meet it :eek:

Nobody would have died of course, but I have now had several apologies from various parties so I hope lessons will be learned :eek:

Mr Cheery has had a similarly vexing day for different reasons so we tried to go out for tea but were thwarted by our favourite restaurant being shut for no reason. So we came home via the supermarket for treats and will spend the evening on the sofa with a lot of well-deserved booze instead :rotfl: